CIAO DATE: 10/03

The Politics of the Environment

Introduction

Democrats lead Republicans by a substantial margin nationally as the party best able to handle environmental issues, as the first table in this collection shows. The second table looks at the power ofthe issue on Election Day. In 2000, for example, 9 percent of voters nationwide told exit pollsters from the Los Angeles Times that the environment was one of the top two issues for them in casting their vote. These voters pulled the lever for Gore over Bush, by 76 to 12 percent. As in elections past, other issues were more important to larger numbers of voters. In the 2000 Los Angeles Times exit poll, almost four times as many voters (35 percent) checked morals/ethical values as the top issue for them on the exit poll ballot. Questions about George W. Bush’s handling of the environment are not asked as often as are questions about his handling of foreign policy or the economy. We include the trends from the major pollsters below. Two polls taken in September 2003 by Princeton Survey Research for Newsweek show Americans split about the job Bush is doing. What explains the even division of opinion on President Bush’s handling the environment when other polls taken at roughly the same time show that people trust the Democrats much more than the Republicans as stewards of the environment? The data don’t provide a clear answer. The environment is not an issue on the front burner for most Americans as two polls in this section of the document show. Other issues such as the performance of the economy and the war on terrorism loom larger. Most Americans consider themselves sympathetic to, but not active in, the environmental movement. The number that consider themselves active (14 percent in Gallup’s March 2003 poll) is similar to the number who say they have contacted a public official about an environmental issue (15 percent in the same poll) and been active in a group or organization that works to protect the environment (20 percent.) In polls, people frequently give their Congressman high marks, but rate the institution as a whole poorly. People like their doctors, but they are critical of health maintenance organizations and the medical profession as a whole. Something similar may be at work in terms of people’s views about the environment. In June 2002, 70 percent told Harris Interactive interviewers that they felt good about the quality of the air, water, and environment where they lived and worked. Far fewer (41 percent) in a March 2003 Gallup, CNN, USA Today poll rated the overall quality of the environmin the country as excellent or gent ood. When the public cares deeply about something, as they do about the environment, they often give responses to surveyors that are designed to keep the pressure on legislators. In the March 2003 Gallup poll, for example, 57 percent said the quality of the environment nationally is getting worse. This response doesn’t mean Americans have read the latest EPA reports on pollution levels. It simply means that they want legislators to pay attention to environmental concerns. Publics rarely give specific legislative advice about complex environmental policy debates in Washington. They express broad general preferences.

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